Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How long on an average, does it take for your Burmese (or similar python) to hunt, choke, and then swallow its prey? My 2 1/2 long Burm is having difficulty in hunting and eating it. When i drop a mouse in the cage, he starts to wander around senselessly until by some stroke of luck, the mouse is in front of the snake. Then my snake gets close enough to rub his little nose against the mouse, and THEN strikes at it. I thought that they would strike it WAY in advance instead of getting within...er..."touching" distance with it. Then finding the dead mouse is another problem. He gets confused on where it is, and starts traveling around the cage away from the kill zone. When he does get close to it, he starts to PUSH the mouse around! After loads of senseless pushing, he finally opens his mouth and garfs it in.

Would this be a problem? I know that snakes aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but seriously, do YOUR snakes to this too?! But i guess the important thing is that he ate the food. IT's kinda embarrassing trying to show your friends eat a mouse and ended up wasting 20 minutes just trying to FIND the mouse.

Dont take this the wrong way, but honestly who cares how long it takes as long as its eating. Switch to Frozen foods so that u can put the prey right up to him from the start. The wondering around the cage after killing the mouse is generally the snake looking for the head of the mouse, feed frozen and eliminate both problems. If your burm is 2 1/2 feet those mice are too small, get small rats or jumbo mice.

Your snake is just a juvile still, and so the feeding thing isnt probably quite as refined as in an adult. Where you cutting and eating your own steak for your first birthday party? Even though its instincts it still takes practice.

Savvgod brought up some very good points. Feeding frozen is much safer for the snake. You avoid parasites and greatly reduce the risk of injury to your snake. Also, you generally will reduce the extremity of the feeding response, because they get used to not having to kill. Switching them when they are young is very important. Or you may not be able to switch them at all.

Something that bothered me was that you complained about not being able to show it off for your friends. Your first priority should be the fact that the snake is feeding, not how good of a show he puts on doing it.
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

I also, have a huge problem with the seemingly little respect you are showing this magnificent creature. Burms a splendid animals and are not novelties. They should only be purchased by mature and responsibile ADULTS. When you start off your thread by stating that your burm is an idiot shows more of a reflection on your on intellect then of your snakes.When one purchases an animal for the pure reson of showing it off is why I strongly feel that the ownership of large burms should be restricted to adults. They are not novelties nor something used to show off to your friends.
As for your question your burm is not an idiot. It is a young snake and is still fine tuning its skills. As he matures he will get better and more proficient at eating. On a side note; you should feed frozen thawed or fresh killed instead of live. The only time that I feel it is alright to feed live is as a last resort. If you haven't offered him f/t p/k prey you should try. Most young burms are easily switched away from live. Anyway, I am done here. Todd

Very well said!! I agree. I am not an adult but more responsible than most that I know. I do not have animals to show off. My main goal in life is to teach people respect. Just because it takes a long time does not mean it is an idiot. Most will do that when young anyways. My first abll python took about 1 hour for it's first few mice. He ebven ate some backwards. This does not mean it is an idiot. Lets see you have to kill a very large rabbit or small dog with nothig but your body and you find a good way to swallow it whole. If you can do this, I will respect your opinion on how it is an idiot. I realy hate it when people impulse buy and have no respect for them and show them off so people will think you are "bad".
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Justin

Usually my 9' will do the same little dance. I feed him no live anymore, to risky. He'll even go as far as to start eating himself until he "BUMPS" his own mouth with his body. Kinda funny to watch.

Good luck.

DZ

Sorry if i have upset some people here in this forum. It's just that it is kinda frustrating watching my snake having difficulty in trying to find its food. I didn't know if there was a problem with him, or if this was a normal condition. Once again, i apologize for any inconvience that i might have caused you.

And I feel that i give my snake some respect whenever i feed him. Generally, i put the mouse in the cage, and then walk out of the room to watch him eat. A simple 5x binoculars work better than looking up close. I showed my snake eating only once to my friends, while still giving the same amount of room needed that i give my snake so if my snake does screw up, it wasn't because of some figetdy kid in the close up on the glass.

I am also having trouble finding this "frozen prepackaged" rodents also. My parents will not allow me to house mice in the house, so this eliminates the chance of buying it off the internet. Other words, she doesn't want dead, packed up mice in the freezer. My only options are live mice. Is there some way i could make this better? I typically put the mouse to an early doom since my snake is always anxious. I found a way to quicken the kill process. When i put the bag that contains the mouse, my burm quickly finds his way inside, grab the mouse, and i just pull the bag out.